Lenovo Launches New Legion Gaming Laptops

In a bid to better compete with the Alienwares and Razers of the world, Lenovo is entering the gaming laptop market with its new line of Legion systems. The focus, apart from offering dashing designs, seems to be on VR.

The two gaming laptops, Y520 and Y720, both come with all the specs obligatory in gaming systems today. The design does seem a bit dated, not helped by the fact that the preceding Ideapad Y-series laptops looked quite similar (as do pretty much all of the traditional gaming laptops available today).

On the front, you get an IPS display, measuring 15.6-inch in the Y520, and either 15.6 or 17-inch in the Y720. The former tops out at 1080p while the latter can go all the way to an anti-glare 4K. Both come with a multicolored backlit keyboard.

Under the hood, for both the laptops you get either Intel Core i5 or i7 Kaby Lake processors, with up to 16 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB SSD (or 2 TB of HDD storage). The main difference comes in GPUs. While the Y520 makes do with a GTX 1050 Ti, the Y720 features a 6 GB GTX 1060.

As a result, the laptop can support VR headsets for gaming and movie sessions, helped in part by a new Entertainment Hub which automatically upscales regular content for VR. Lenovo is even throwing in a Xbox One controller receiver, so you don’t need additional dongles for connectivity. The Y720 also comes with Dolby Atmos sound as well as a Thunderbolt 3 type-C port.

Battery life is quoted at lasting up to 5 hours for the Y720 or 4 on the Y520. As for the pricing, the Y520 starts at $899.99, while the Y720 at $1399.99. Both of these laptops will be made available come April.